Over the years various proposals have been made for providing detachable blades for rotary mowers. See for example the exemplary teachings of such U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,576,884 to Leigh, 2,869,311 to Beeston, Jr., 3,097,468 to Johnson, 3,327,460 to Blackstone, 3,447,291 to Guetterman, 3,563,015 to Renfroe, and 3,949,541 to Henry.
The use of detachable blades offers the advantage of enabling the blades to be removed for sharpening, repair, or replacement. However, previously designed detachable blades have not been without defects or shortcomings. For example, some constructions have required the application of considerable force to loosen or tighten nuts or the like in order to remove or apply the blades. For this purpose, torque wrenches are often required. Since specialized tools of this type are quite expensive, they are not always readily available for use in removing or applying the blades. Other constructions have involved mechanisms that are inconvenient, hard to reach and difficult to operate properly. Still others have been complicated in construction and expensive to manufacture.
A worthwhile and desirable contribution to the art would be the provision of a new and improved detachable rotary blade construction avoiding most if not all of the foregoing defects and shortcomings. This invention is believed to fulfill this objective in an efficient, straightforward, and economical manner.